Emergencies and Urgent Care

When you or your family need urgent care, we can help!

Urgent care is a convenient option for getting medical care when it’s not an emergency and your primary care provider is not available. Urgent care usually does not require making an appointment ahead of time.

As an AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia (DC) enrollee, you have multiple options for accessing urgent care:

• Video or phone appointments — Talk to a provider over the phone or by video chat.
• Urgent care at home — Call the AmeriHealth Caritas DC provider that offers enrollees urgent medical care at home.
• No-cost transportation — Schedule a ride to an urgent care clinic near you.
• 24/7 Nurse Call Line — Call the nurse line with health questions or for help deciding if you should go to an urgent care clinic, your provider’s office, or the emergency room.

Urgent care or emergency?

Urgent care is medical care you need within 24 hours that might not be for an emergency.

Emergency care is medical care you need right away for a serious, sudden (sometimes life-threatening) injury or illness. An emergency injury or illness could cause your whole body or parts of your body to stop working or to not work correctly. If you have an emergency, call 911 or go to the emergency room.

The chart below provides some examples of when you may need to go to an urgent care location or the emergency room. If you aren’t sure where you should go to get care, call your primary care provider’s (PCP) office or the 24/7 Nurse Call Line at 1-877-759-6279.

Watch this video to learn more about urgent care options available to enrollees.

Urgent care by phone or video chat

RelyMD is an AmeriHealth Caritas DC provider that offers our enrollees access to urgent care professionals 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A provider will review the medical history you provide and contact you within minutes. The average callback wait time is 60 minutes or less.

Watch this video to learn more about RelyMD.

Enrollees can access urgent care by phone or video:

• Use the RelyMD app on your mobile device*
• Call RelyMD at 1-855-879-4332
• Visit www.relymd.com

*Message and data rates may apply based on any agreements enrollees have with their network service providers.

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Urgent care at home

DispatchHealth is an AmeriHealth Caritas DC provider that offers enrollees urgent medical care at home. DispatchHealth is available seven days a week, including holidays, from 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. To schedule an appointment, call 1-844-228-0154 or book online at www.dispatchhealth.com. A representative will ask about your symptoms and give you a time frame for arrival, typically within three hours. A care team from DispatchHealth will arrive at your home with everything needed to treat your illness or injury. 

Transportation to urgent care clinic

AmeriHealth Caritas DC enrollees can schedule a same-day ride to a nearby urgent care clinic at no cost. View the urgent care brochure (PDF) flyer to find an urgent care clinic near you or use the interactive map below. When you know where you want to go, call Transportation Services at 1-800-315-3485 to schedule a ride. Call ahead before you go to an urgent care clinic or before going to your PCP.

This video explains how to arrange transportation for an urgent care visit.

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24/7 Nurse Call Line

AmeriHealth Caritas DC enrollees can call the 24/7 Nurse Call Line at 1-877-759-6279 to speak to a nurse 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The 24/7 Nurse Call Line can help determine what type of care you might need, help you learn how to manage your symptoms, or provide assistance accessing one of the other urgent care options.

Watch this video to see how the 24/7 Nurse Call Line works. 

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To view these videos in Spanish, visit our YouTube page.